Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In a typical market area, wireless service providers may operate radio access networks (RANs) each arranged to provide mobile terminals with wireless communication service. Each such a RAN may include a number of base stations that radiate to define wireless coverage areas in which to serve mobile terminals according to a radio access technology such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Wireless Operability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (e.g., 1×RTT and 1×EV-DO), GSM, GPRS, UMTS, EDGE, iDEN, TDMA, AMPS, MMDS, WIFI, and BLUETOOTH, or others now known or later developed. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a mobile terminal within coverage of the RAN may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other mobile terminals served by the base station or by other base stations.
In general, a wireless service provider may operate one or more such RANs as a public land mobile network (PLMN) for serving mobile terminals that subscribe to service of the provider. For example, a service provider may operate a CDMA PLMN and may provide mobile terminals with subscriptions that allow the terminals to receive CDMA service from that PLMN. As another example, a service provider may operate an LTE RAN as a PLMN and may provide mobile terminals with subscriptions that allow the terminals to receive LTE service from that PLMN. And as another example, a service provider may operate both a CDMA PLMN and an LTE PLMN and may provide mobile terminals with subscriptions that allow the terminals to receive both CDMA service from the CDMA PLMN and LTE service from the LTE PLMN.
In practice, a RAN operating as a PLMN may have an associated PLMN identifier (PLMN ID), and base stations of the RAN may be arranged to broadcast that PLMN ID to indicate that the base stations are part of that PLMN. Mobile terminals that subscribe to service of a wireless service provider's PLMN may then be provisioned with data indicating the PLMN ID of the PLMN and with logic that causes the mobile terminals to prefer service by base stations broadcasting that PLMN ID. Further, mobile terminals that subscribe to service of multiple PLMNs, such as both an LTE PLMN and a CDMA PLMN may be provisioned with data indicating the PLMN IDs of each such PLMN and with logic that causes the mobile terminals to prefer service by base stations broadcasting one or more of those PLMN IDs.
In addition to operating a RAN as its own PLMN, a wireless service provider may also operate a RAN on behalf of one or more other wireless service providers known as “mobile virtual network operators” (MVNOs), to allow the MVNOs to provide wireless communication service without the need to build out RANs of their own. To facilitate this, the service provider may not only operate the RAN as its own PLMN for serving mobile terminals that subscribe to its own service but may also operate the RAN as another PLMN for serving mobile terminals that subscribe to the MVNO. As such, base stations of the RAN may be arranged to broadcast not only their base PLMN ID indicating that they are part of the wireless service provider's PLMN but also an MVNO PLMN ID indicating that they are part of the MVNO's PLMN. Further, mobile terminals that subscribe to service of the MVNO may be provisioned with data indicating the MVNO PLMN ID and with logic that causes the mobile terminals to prefer service by base stations broadcasting that MVNO PLMN ID.
In practice, an MVNO may be a different company than the actual RAN operator or may be the same company as the actual RAN operator. In either case, wireless communication service offered by the MVNO may be branded differently than that offered by the actual RAN operator. Further, the RAN may be configured to provide different levels or types of service to mobile terminals that subscribe to service of the actual RAN operator than to mobile terminals that subscribe to service of particular MVNOs.
In addition, a wireless service provider that functions as an MVNO using base stations of another service provider may also operate its own RAN in certain locations, and may in fact host service for the other service provider in certain locations such that the other service provider would function as an MVNO in those locations. Thus, a service provider may operate a first RAN and provide mobile terminals with subscriptions of a first PLMN having a first PLMN ID, and a second service provider may operate a second RAN and may provide mobile terminals with subscriptions of a second PLMN having a second PLMN ID. Base stations of the first RAN may then be part of the first service provider's PLMN, broadcasting the first PLMN ID and also part of the second service provider's PLMN, broadcasting the second PLMN ID. Further, base stations of the second service provider's RAN may also be part of the second service provider's PLMN, broadcasting the second PLMN ID and might also be part of the first service provider's PLMN, broadcasting the first PLMN ID.
Still further, a wireless service provider may allow one or more of its PLMNs to serve mobile terminals that subscribe to service of other PLMNs, pursuant to a roaming agreement. In particular, a first service provider providing a first PLMN may enter into a roaming agreement with a second service provider providing a second PLMN, according to which the first PLMN will serve mobile terminals that subscribe to the second PLMN, and the second service provider will compensate the first service provider for providing that service. As such, a mobile terminal that subscribes to service of the second PLMN but that is not within sufficient coverage of the second PLMN may instead opt to be served by the first PLMN.